Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 27, 2026

LocalWiki

LocalWiki is a project that was founded by Davis Wiki creators Mike Ivanov and Philip Neustrom to help communities create local wikis. They started DavisWiki in 2004, a crowdsourced website for the college town of Davis, California, which became popular among Davis residents. They expanded the software to create the LocalWiki platform in the early 2010s after receiving a grant from the Knight Foundation. The project still exists as of 2024 but has struggled to remain viable.

Last revised
May 27, 2026
Read time
≈ 6 min
Length
1,439 w
Citations
38
Source
Wikipedia ↗
LocalWiki
Original authors
  • Michael Ivanov
  • Philip Neustrom
DeveloperLocalWiki
Stable release
Preview release
Written inPython
Websitelocalwiki.org Edit this at Wikidata

LocalWiki is a project that was founded by Davis Wiki creators Mike Ivanov and Philip Neustrom to help communities create local wikis.12 They started DavisWiki in 2004, a crowdsourced website for the college town of Davis, California, which became popular among Davis residents. They expanded the software to create the LocalWiki platform in the early 2010s after receiving a grant from the Knight Foundation. The project still exists as of 2024 but has struggled to remain viable.

History

DavisWiki

In 2004, Ivanov and Neustrom started DavisWiki, an experimental project to collect and share local information about the town of Davis, California, editable by anyone.3 By 2006, DavisWiki was one of the largest city wikis, providing its users a guide to a wide range of topics like local businesses, politics and activities.4 It allowed more geographically-specific and subjective information than Wikipedia.5 Neustrom described DavisWiki as hyperlocal.2 By 2007, two former Davis residents created a similar wiki for the neighboring city of Sacramento, California, using the Wikispot website that also hosted DavisWiki.67 In 2009, Nieman Lab called DavisWiki the world's best local wiki.38 That year Neustrom was planning to incorporate the nonprofit under the name Wikispot.3

Expansion into wiki platform (2010–2014)

In June 2010, LocalWiki won a $350,000 grant from the Knight News Challenge to help build the technology so that other communities could create their own wikis, modeled after DavisWiki.910 The grant was related to the Knight Foundation's interest in open government; they also funded OpenStreetMap and EveryBlock.11 Also in June 2010, the New York Times noted that DavisWiki had helped Davis residents compile information about a local con artist.12 Later that year, LocalWiki ran a Kickstarter project that raised $26,000 to help fund outreach.1314

In 2011 the project worked with the creators of an existing city wiki in Denton, Texas, to shift the website to the LocalWiki platform, because their original wiki software was not user-friendly.1516 LocalWiki's second focus community was the Triangle region of Durham, North Carolina, with initial contributions about transportation infrastructure and parks,17 and a goal of compiling information about historic events.18 The Triangle project was supported by volunteers from CityCamp Raleigh and by Red Hat, a company based in Raleigh.19 A nonprofit in Tallahassee, Florida, Village Square, helped start TallahasseeWiki in 2012 with knowledge from residents.2021 Residents of Ann Arbor, Michigan transitioned their city wiki, founded in 2005, to the LocalWiki platform in 2012.22

Oakland Wiki was launched in November 2012, coming out of a Code for Oakland event in September; it received early support from Open Oakland.23 In 2014, the Oakland Wiki was used as a resource for information in a public debate around surveillance in Oakland24 as well as showcasing more whimsical ideas such as re-imagining supervisor districts with Hunger Games logos.25 The Oakland Wiki attracts volunteers who want to preserve history and information that is not notable enough for Wikipedia.2623

As of 2013, the DavisWiki was still the most actively used LocalWiki.27 Some challenges experienced by LocalWiki include determining geographic boundaries for LocalWikis, specialized knowledge needed to start a LocalWiki, and difficulty coordinating across LocalWikis.27 As of 2014, LocalWiki had 71 wikis in 10 countries.28

2015-present

By 2024, LocalWiki has survived but, according to a PhD thesis from Temple University, only resulted in 100,000 articles and has struggled to be viable.2930

Functionality

The LocalWiki software includes a WYSIWYG editing interface to help make editing simpler.31 It also includes mapping features: each article can have an associated annotated map, and the website has an overview map with those annotations.31 LocalWiki is built on the Django framework in Python.31

See als

References

References

  1. Myers, Steve (16 June 2010). "Data Visualization, Community Involvement Among Winning Ideas in Knight News Challenge". Poynter Institute. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  2. Badger, Emily (10 May 2012). "A Crowdsourced Hyperlocal City Guide, Coming To You Soon". Fast Company. Archived from the original on October 26, 2012. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  3. Andersen, Michael (November 6, 2009). "Welcome to Davis, Calif.: Six lessons from the world's best local wiki". Nieman Journalism Lab. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  4. Phua, Chelsea (December 10, 2006). "Web site has scoop on Davis community - Davis Wiki allows users to add and edit listings on everything from city politics to the best places in town for a date". Sacramento Bee. Archived from the original on 2012-10-07. Retrieved 2026-05-11 – via nl.newsbank.com.
  5. Micallef, Shawn (2006-04-01). "Steal This Idea: The Davis, California, Town Wiki". The Globe and Mail. p. 90. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  6. St. John, Claire (2007-05-02). "Real-time Sacramento: Two transplanted Davisites create a city-specific online encyclopedia". Sacramento News & Review. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  7. Heyamoto, Lisa (2007-11-03). "Web site unearths city nuggets". The Sacramento Bee. pp. B1. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  8. Bosio, Samantha (2009-11-18). "Davis Wiki declared "world's best local wiki"". The California Aggie. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  9. Cohen, Noam (2010-06-17). "Knight Foundation Hands Out Grants to 12 Groups, but Not WikiLeaks". Media Decoder Blog. New York Times. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  10. McGann, Laura (18 June 2010). "Knight News Challenge: Is a wiki site coming to your city? Local Wiki will build software to make it simple". Nieman Journalism Lab. Archived from the original on June 30, 2010. Retrieved 11 May 2026.
  11. Bracken, John (2013). "The Bigger Picture: Ten Lessons for Taking Open Government Further". In Goldstein, Brett (ed.). Beyond Transparency: Open Data and the Future of Civic Innovation. Code for America Press. ISBN 978-0-615-88908-5.
  12. Wollan, Malia (2010-06-26). "Seeing 'Crying Girl' as a Con, Residents Cull Clues Online". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  13. Becky Peterson (23 September 2010). "LocalWiki project raises over $25,000". The California Aggie. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  14. Beckett, Lois (October 6, 2010). "Trust, mobile, and money: New focal points (and hints for applicants) for the new Knight News Challenge". Nieman Lab. Archived from the original on 2025-03-23. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  15. Balderas, Nicole (2011-10-31). "Local Wiki project takes off in Denton". North Texas Daily. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  16. Trice, Michael R. (August 2019). LocalWiki: A Review of Genre Ecology Instability across Classes of Participants (PhD thesis). Texas Tech University. p. 4. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  17. Rudd, Leslie (2012-01-18). "Triangle Gets Wiki of Its Own". Raleigh Public Record. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  18. Kellner, Chelsea (15 November 2011). "Something Wiki this way comes, contributors sought". Midtown Raleigh News. Archived from the original on 20 November 2011. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  19. Kellner, Chelsea (2012-02-25). "Creators make final push for Triangle Wiki". The News and Observer. pp. B7. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  20. Herbert Joyner, Liz (2012-06-21). "Village Square offers Wiki summer camp". Tallahassee Democrat. pp. E3. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  21. Culver, Jordan (2012-06-25). "The Village Square leads city 'Wiki' page charge". Tallahassee Democrat. pp. A1, A2. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  22. "ArborWiki Editing: Easier, Prettier, Wikier". The Ann Arbor Chronicle. 2012-09-21. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  23. Grossberg, Adam (2013-01-14). "Weekly Oakland Wiki Edit-a-thons start at the History Room". Oakland North. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  24. Dilling, Audrey (May 20, 2014). "Oakland Wiki puts 'community brain' online". KALW. Archived from the original on 2014-07-04. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  25. Scola, Nancy (April 3, 2014). "If Oakland Were 'The Hunger Games'". Next City. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  26. Rasilla, Azucena (2022-12-03). "'It's on all of us to preserve history': Oakland historians are documenting The Town". Oaklandside. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  27. Carruthers, Alexandra (November 7, 2013). "Digital Public Spaces Trend-spotting Report: Detailed Trends" (PDF). Edmonton Public Library. Retrieved 12 May 2026.
  28. Artz, Matthew (2014-01-17). "Website aims to record everything about Oakland". East Bay Times. Retrieved 2026-05-11.
  29. Dong, Ziqi (August 2024). The Power of Crowd in the Business World (PhD thesis). Temple University. p. 8. Retrieved 2026-05-11. ...it is complicated and challenging for non-profit UGC platforms to thrive in today's rapidly evolving tech environment and with varied user demographics. Indeed, only a few of them have succeeded, while others like LocalWiki have been struggling to be viable.
  30. Dong, Ziqi. (August 2024) "The Power of Crowd in the Business World" (PhD Thesis) p. 40. "Wikipedia has succeeded in the non-profit UGC landscape and is one of the most visited websites worldwide (Similarweb 2024). In contrast, some special-interest platforms fare relatively poorly in attracting content contributions and building high-quality content. For instance, LocalWiki, a non-profit UGC platform founded in 2004, aims to host the entire world’s local knowledge. However, as of March 2024, it has only about 100,000 articles from worldwide communities, far from achieving its announced goal."
  31. Willis, Nathan (27 April 2012). "Weekend Project: Get to Know LocalWiki for Local Information Sites". Linux.com. Archived from the original on 7 May 2012. Retrieved 11 May 2026.
External links